Principal Investigator: dr hab. Maciej Sekerdej

Why are some people relatively easily accepted in our group, and others not? How is it influenced by the quality of relations in the
group? In what ways expectations towards newcomers determine the rules of ingroup membership? Our project aims at the
analysis of national attitudes and their implications for intra-, and intergroup relations, with the use of Relational Models Theory
(RMT, Fiske, 1991). The RMT models – communal sharing (CS), authority ranking (AR), equality matching (EM) and market
pricing (MP) – determine the structure of the relations, their motivational aspect, coordinate the rules of resources exchange and
distribution, social influence, work organization, and decision making. The main goal of the project is to examine how different
models of intragroup relations facilitate tolerance towards newcomers, and which of those models reinforce the existing divisions.
2. Research project methodology (in English)
The empirical research is comprised of two parts. The first part is of exploratory character. In this stage we plan to determine
basic, correlational relationships between the examined variables. It will allow to verify our predictions, and plan further
experiments in detail.
In the second part we want to test experimentally the causal character of the revealed correlations. Thus, we will manipulate the
accessibility of the particular relational models, and measure their impact on the attitudes towards the national ingroup and
outgroupers. Moreover, we will examine the impact of changing accessibility of particular models on the readiness to accept
certain immigrant groups in the host society, and also on the other involved variables (national identification, attitudes towards the
ingroup, and outgroups).
3. Expected impact of the research project on the development of science, civilization and society (in English)
Above all, the results of our research will allow a better understanding and integration of the described relationships between
social identity, national identity, the perception of the ingroup and outgroups, and the attitudes towards the ingroup and outgroups.
The project’s input can be viewed in both theoretical and practical dimensions. Thus, regarding its theoretical contribution, the
project offers a new perspective for the analysis of relations. It focuses above all on relations between social objects (individuals,
groups), and not primarily on the objects themselves, as main psychological theories of intergroup relations do. By doing so, it
complements importantly the current lines of research. The practical significance is above all the diagnosis of intra-, and
intergroup relations within the society, and identification of the factors that ameliorate the relations and promote tolerance.